I also saw this movie and can testify that it's 90% accurate regarding how the civil war really was. But it's still a left-wing flick, it tilts that way. For instance, it showed us the brutality of the right-wing military but never once did it mentioned the atrocities of the communist guerrillas. I for one lived in El Salvador during the civil war and can say it was an ugly, nasty war. Most of the atrocities were committed by the communist left-wing guerrillas. They also committed massacres en-masse of civilians.
There still DOESN'T exist ONE flick about the Salvadoran civil war which showed BOTH sides of the atrocities. All of them are left-leaning.
Anyways, let's pardon this movie for neglecting to show us the atrocities of the other side (communist guerrillas) and let's focus on the cinematography.... it was excellent, excellent cinematography, I liked the attention to detail in this movie, the recruitments and the sudden barrages of gunfire.. that's exactly how this war was. Boys were forcefully drafted into the army and thrown into battle-infested areas as soon as they reached 12, sometimes younger (amazing that this movie neglected to depict the fact that the guerrillas were worse, they took kids at 9 years of age and gave them Ak-47's to attack military bases).
Anyways, I really enjoyed this "coming of age" movie in a war-torn country, at least it was accurate and not preposterous like James Wood's/Oliver Stone's 1985 "Salvador".